>>Hello, I'm Jennifer Whitt, Director of ProjectManager.com
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>>Well, welcome to our whiteboard session today on using social media to enhance and
elevate project planning.
Many people ask, "Why in the world would I want to use social media?
What does it have to do with project management?"
Here are some of the ideas we want to share with you to see how social media actually
is enhancing and elevating project management, specifically the planning.
Why would we even be interested in social media for project management?
Number one, it's like why would we do that, the benefit.
Here's some of the benefits that we found is number one, you glean insights, insights
from others worldwide who had been there, done that.
Sometimes we work within project environments where people haven't experienced the project
we're trying to do or maybe some of their approaches especially in planning.
We get to leverage the insights from others worldwide.
Number two, ideas.
We get to glean new approaches from people who have done things that are tried and true.
We get to request, request special resources that may not be available to us in our environment,
but if we cast a wide net worldwide through social media channels, we can ask for specific
resources who have done the things that we're trying to do and they may be available where
they may not be available in our current environment.
Also, relationships.
We found that we can begin growing and nurturing relationships that if we don't utilize them
now or leverage them now, we might be able to for future opportunities.
You never know where your next big opportunity may come and it may be just through these
channels.
Also, experiences.
By connecting with people worldwide, I mean literally I have connections in so many different
countries, so I began to be able to globalize myself.
I actually have conversations with people and emails back and forth, what do you do
and how do you do it.
I get to experience people from their culture and see how not only they do things from a
work approach, but we get to exchange information on a personal level about family and activities
and what does someone do in a different country.
These are very valuable things that we can bring to our project planning process.
What are the steps?
How would we even go about doing this?
Many people even have never tried social media.
Maybe they don't get it.
It's like why in the world would I do that?
I don't understand why people would tweet.
What can I get in 140 characters?
Here's how you set things up or here are the steps.
You set up, you learn, invite, connect, and more importantly, contribute.
Let's look at these further.
To set up, again, there are different social media channels and depending upon your area
of expertise or some of the types of projects you do, by setting up Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,
there are a lot of helpful blogs out there, you can set up RSS feeds to receive information
to you.
There are several RSS feeds that I have that I get information daily, that I love to read
and it's great tips.
Set those up.
It's really easy.
You're basically setting an online account and it just takes a few minutes to set that
up.
Then you learn.
There's a specific language with all of these, specially, for instance, Twitter.
The tweets are 140 characters, so you have to learn the language and how to say things
and tweet things such that they make sense.
Facebook and LinkedIn and some of the blogs have other specific purposes, so you have
to learn the language and the protocol.
I participate in many project management groups and many times I'll see people exchanging
things between one another and there are people who get on some of these groups and they argue
and they dispute and they demean and demise other people.
Don't do that.
I mean it just doesn't show professionalism with anyone and the whole idea is to exchange
ideas.
It doesn't mean that we all have to agree with the ideas or the approaches, but it's
the idea of sharing and contributing.
It's not evaluating and, again, you want to remain professional in these groups as we
participate.
Invite.
Proactively go out and search for someone.
You may be looking for information in a specific industry or maybe you've heard something in
a new industry or new company or maybe a specific country.
You can go do search criteria, you can look for project managers, you can look for PMPs,
you can look for executives, and then proactively invite people to join and connect with you.
Connect.
People will likewise be doing the same thing.
I don't necessarily subscribe everyone to connect with everyone, but if someone asks
you to connect and you go read their profile, you want to see what value that they could
add for you and respond.
Sometimes if someone asks you to connect, then you check out their profile, you may
respond back and say, "You know, I don't see any common interest.
Help me understand what you had in mind to connect."
Sometimes it may bring back a specific business opportunity or may know someone else in your
network.
If they don't, you may not want to connect with them, but at least respond one way.
Contribute.
Once you get involved in these social media networks, it's a value to contribute.
Contribute value added information, tips, tools, and techniques, things that you've
found that are helpful.
It's not only about just getting information, just going out and being the taker of the
information, it's giving.
It's paying it forward, paying forward value to others who may not have experienced what
you have.
In the end, what do we glean from this?
What are the results?
We think there are three primary things that you gain here.
Again, it's enhancing and elevating your project planning.
It's also managing projects differently and also improving project results.
We find those three things are worth value.
These have been things that have helped us in our project planning and how we view social
media and we're hoping some of these tips will help you, too.
If you're looking for ways to bring social media to your projects and help your project
planning, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager.com.